Mu Performing Arts announces 2009-2010 mainstage season

(Minneapolis – May 7, 2008) Mu Performing Arts announces its upcoming 2009-2010 mainstage season of two critically acclaimed plays, a world premiere, and an annual Mu favorite.

The Romance of Magno Rubio by Lonnie Carter opens the season at Mixed Blood Theatre, September 4 – 20. Orlando Pabotoy, who created the title role in the Ma-Yi Theater Company’s Obie Award-winning 2002 premiere, directs this lyrical story based upon a short poem by prominent Filipino American poet Carlos Bulosan. Magno Rubio, a Filipino farm worker, dreams of a romantic affair with a beautiful white woman while his mates deride his naïveté. The play beautifully explores the dreams and frustrations of these cooped-up immigrants in the 1930s through romantic verse and Filipino traditional art forms.

Leading the cast of The Romance of Magno Rubio is Mu Performing Arts’ Associate Artistic Director Randy Reyes. Reyes takes on the role fresh off a standout string of appearances on stage at the Guthrie, where he was an audience favorite in both A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Two Gentlemen of Verona.

In December, Mu brings the pulsating energy of Japanese taiko drumming back to the Southern Theater. Mu Daiko celebrates both the 100th anniversary of the Southern’s distinctive venue and the group’s own evolution in Taiko Caravan. With its signature driving rhythms and dramatic visual artistry, Mu Daiko traces its growth, from its ad-hoc roots in 1997 to the present blend of theater, dance, and music it brings to the Twin Cities today.

Honoring a yearly tradition, Mu welcomes the nationally renowned San Jose Taiko Group for the second weekend of Taiko Caravan performances.

Yellow Face by David Henry Hwang takes Mu to the Guthrie’s Dowling Studio February 6 – 21. Hwang tells his own story, from the pinnacle of his Tony Award win down through the mires of controversy and political investigations. As the play that earned Hwang the title of 2008 Pulitzer Prize finalist, Yellow Face is teeming with humorous insights that remind us that good intentions do not always win out in the end.

Yellow Face marks a series of David Henry Hwang works appearing in the Twin Cities. It follows the Mu Performing Arts 2008-2009 season production of Hwang’s new version of the classic musical Flower Drum Song, and precedes the Guthrie’s presentation of M. Butterfly.

Closing Mu’s mainstage season is Becoming by Iris Shiraishi. This world premiere is personal journey of discovery from Shiraishi’s own childhood in Hawaii to her work as a taiko artist with Mu Performing Arts. An intimate piece filled with ritual and song, Becoming is an uplifting work close to the heart of Mu.

2009-2010 marks a pivotal season in Mu Performing Arts’ sixteen-year history. Along with its four mainstage productions, Mu will introduce a new emerging artists program fostering the next generation of Asian American actors in the Twin Cities. The organization will also complete a move to downtown Saint Paul and direct a renewed focus on issues of social justice in its theater, taiko, and outreach programming.